Catching Foxes

Luke sings to me. We talk Game of Thrones and how much it sucks this season. Then Marvel's Defenders. Around 38 minutes is when the content heats up. We talk about why people on the internet can be so absolutist over nothing. Gomer's walk of penance in his office. Then ...my dad... then I change the subject to how I was on Jen Fulwiler's Show and not Luke. So, net win.

We bring back Ike Ndolo to create a safe space so he can blow us all away. We start with him WHINING about wedding planning, wildly inappropriate sex stuff and Ike bringing "The Drama", and then unleash Ike on Charlottesville. Special Guest: Ike Ndolo.

We've talked about the "anima technica vacua" a bunch of times in the past, but now we do a deep dive, especially how the empty soul of the modern West affects our patterns of thinking.

Anthony D'Ambrosio of Catholic Creatives hops on the shows from a trailer park filled with Evangelicals to discuss life, art, creativity, the New Catholic Renaissance in beauty, and how to deal with insecurity, self-doubt, and envy. Apparently, Anthony is a punk-rocker turned seminarian turned artist turned event planner!

After listening to our show on the Convocation of Catholic Leaders, Brandon Vogt reaches out to us to explain and to reach some common ground between what was presented on the "Nones" panel and Luke's take away. Gomer, for his part, doesn't do the nice small-talk thing, and just makes them argue, which is fun.

Luke and Gomer talk... well... we talk about a lot of stuff. Why does it seem like there are a lot more chill nuns than priests, emotional manipulation in youth ministry, Sister Miriam is incredible, diet fails, and, of course, GAME OF THRONES. Come on, moralizers, do you really think that God approves of you watching literally anything on TV? Would Mother Teresa watch any of your crap? Oh, so it'...

Have you ever watched a movie and fallen in love with it, while the guy on the couch next to you thinks it's just OK? What separates us out like that? Why does Luke love Tarantino, while Gomer thinks him a coked up 17 year-old? Why does Wes Anderson do nothing for Luke, but the Cohen Brothers get his gears grooving? This conversation revolves around Spider-Man: Homecoming and the Marvel Cinematic...

Luke, representing 500,000 Catholics, attended the convocation and he represented Catching Foxes well. We explore the suckiness of treating the crisis in the Church as a sociology/statistics problem, the lack of God, when God showed up in the preaching of Sister Miriam, SOLT, and Gomer shares a prison ministry heartbreak. Also: IS SINGLENESS A VOCATION?

We invited our friend, Danielle Noonan, to talk about her love of music, what it means to be adopted, to be a childhood victim of abuse, and how cheap consolation really, really pisses her off. Danielle has been producing music, first in ministry with my old parish in Sugar Land, Texas, and now as a recording artist who travels to Nashville regularly and has "people".

It started with a description of the great book, "The World Beyond Your Head" and took us quickly around the anima technia vacua, from gambling to porn to social media, we look at how the psychology of being spent is destroying us. STOP BUYING THE CHEEP CHICKEN EGGS!!!!

There are few things more annoying to than people who seem to peddle inspiration. You find them on Facebook encouraging you to follow your dreams, chase the rainbow, and change your life. The reason, I've found, why these people are so damned bent on inspiration is because they have discovered this wonderful thing called "energy" that I lacked because I'm a damned couch potato. Well, for the last...

We talk about work-as-email and Gomer's conflict with research reading. Youth Ministry, and the parish's constant tendency to segregate family, especially by age. We talk about the Art of Life and morality as taught by the Church. This leads us back to the community problem, but focusing on the demise of "The Lodge" and the American Legion type places. Then we talk about The Great Casualization (s...

Ben Walther is a legend in our Household, AMDG. Ben is a man's man who is insanely positive and deeply prayerful. We had a great conversation about what it means to be a man, initiation rites and our lack thereof, dadlessness and the Father, and then we take a hard right turn into music. Luke brings up his new fave that he found out is both Christian and Queer and what that means. We end with me y...

10 Minute Topics! We call it 10-minute topics, but we rarely stay within the 10-minute limit. I start off talking about my beautiful daughter who has a huge anxiety issue at the age of 5 and how I have no idea how to deal with it. Second, we thank the XLT Atlanta folks for an amazing time. Then we talk about Catholic Schools and their struggle with discipleship, finances, and Catholic identity. Ne...

Sarah Nickel works with children, generally ages 3-15, who have autism. She also applies developmental psychology and behavioral analysis skills to manage her friendship with Luke. Yes, they are besties. No, it's not ALL inside jokes about their time together in Denver. But there is this one part about 35 minutes into it where we discover Luke cheated on a food competition.

I politely asked Luke to leave his own apartment so that I could interview Mr. Carey from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Apparently, HR won't let them in the same room. Anywho, two church workers have an intelligent conversation about spiritual life as the center of the workplace. Yes, even meetings. ESPECIALLY MEETINGS!

Luke grew up in the great place of Dayton, OH. It's a town that is a great place to be from, but not really be in. Luke talks about driving home for his worky work, but has no one in Dayton to go home to and no friends to visit. Plus, there's the crap about high school life. What was it with those people in high school who are just jerks for no reason? Well, after working with youth for years we r...

"If you're going to break up, Ash Wednesday is a great time to do it!" Luke and Arleen (no Gomer this week) talk about their cooky lives, the fun of dating, and the strange intimacy that comes with breaking up. Luke and Arleen trade breakup stories, but this is NOT a pity party. This is more about lessons learned and experiences reflected upon. Luke throws in some comments about maturity and Arlee...

Luke and Gomer interview a buddy they knew while at college, but who wasn't a student. Yes, he was a townie. A dirty, dirty townie. If you listen to this I think you'll get why the Incarnation and the Sacraments are oh so necessary to a real, and really human, faith. And you'll see why we humans can totally screw things up.

We do a quick and exhausting follow up to Katie Garcia's Visitation and Funeral that Gomer was able to attend. Then we talk a lot about how much we need God in our lives. We finally end it all by talking about ourselves- fitting- because IT'S OUR TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!! April 20 (yes, 4/20 potheads) in 2015 kicked off the Catching Foxes experiment and boy have we got a deal for you! In return for...

This is an interesting episode. We start off being stupid, as is usual, then Luke takes us to a serious turn as we discuss the end-of-life of our young friend, Katie Garcia, whom we knew from college and who lives here in Houston about 30 minutes from me with her truly amazing husband and four kids. Luke mentioned A Severe Mercy, which reminded me of several scenes from the movie Shadowlands, whic...

We talk about Lent. Luke's is going pretty well, but then he visited me and I ruined it. Then Gomer shares his amazing experiences inside the Ferguson Unit prison during the Kolbe Prison Retreat Ministry. And Gomer got a prison nickname. My Facebook Post on the Kolbe Prison Retreat Ministry The experience of going to the prison was intense and amazing. The men in white (MIW) who were there for the...

SUPPORT OUR PATREON CAMPAIGN! We get to talk with America's favorite Catholic, Leah Darrow, as we explore her roots in farm country, Oklahoma, what conference life is like for an introvert, and how she balances this stuff with family and fashion, which is still a good part of her life, but in a human way. We talk about some super interesting stuff like Slow Food, Slow Fashion and the whole Slow Cu...

OUR FIRST LIVE SHOW! Thank you to everyone who attended on March 8 at Deacon Baldy's Food Truck Park and Bar! I tried my best to edit the crap out of this, thinking from your perspective, dear listener who wasn't in attendance. There's some gold in here!

Aaron Gillespie , a drummer and vocalist for Underoath , talks to us about the industry, life, family, sex and faith. He ends up asking more questions of us than we do of him, which is a blast!